Good Deeds
by LittleMouseValentine
Summary: Filia has fallen ill and all she wants is some peace and quiet.  Then, to her dismay, Xellos shows up.  This was to be expected, but what he does is not.  Entry for Beloved Enemy's "100 Nights of Summer Theme Challenge."  X/F


**Author's Note: **This is for Beloved Enemy's 100 Nights of Summer Challenge, and if you're a fan of Xellos/Filia, I definitely encourage you to participate. And without further ado, theme #55.

**"#55 Good Deeds"**

It was a beautiful day in the Outer World and anyone would love to just go out into the sunny weather and tan for a bit, while drinking some fancy drink imported from somewhere fancy-like. However, the top thing Filia wanted to do at the moment was drink some herbal tea and take a nap.  
For you see, Filia had fallen ill and, though she was determined to keep up with her shop and take care of her adopted son Val, she couldn't deny that she really needed the rest. So, despite her furious comebacks toward Jillas and Gravos, she gave in and took the day off.  
However, in the end, she couldn't really complain. It was really nice to just relax the most she could as she put her trust in Jillas and Gravos to take care of Val, fill in for her at the shop, and feed the cat. She would actually have enjoyed it if it weren't for the fact that she had a massive migraine, her nose was completed clogged, and her body ached like nothing she'd ever known. In any case, this wasn't too bad considering she'd had worse days.  
Little did she know, this day was soon going to be put in her "Bad, _Bad_ Memories" category.

Filia rolled over in bed and flipped her pillow to get the cold side as she breathed through her open (and slightly drooling) mouth. Her head felt clouded and fuzzy and her eyes stared blankly into the distance. She closed her eyes and relished the comforting darkness of the room. That is, until a certain someone decided to randomly appear and open the curtains revealing the bright, sunny day behind them.

... _The jerk._

"Ah, Filia, look at this beautiful day! You should be out there enjoying it!" the all-too-familiar voice announced as light flooded the room.

"Please, Xellos, I'm not in the mood for it today..." Filia groaned from beneath the pillow, trying to block out his voice and suppress her pounding migraine.

Xellos chuckled before responding, "Does that mean you're in the mood for it _other_ days?"

"Leave me alone!" she shouted, again, from under the pillow as she tossed a spare pillow at him. Which flopped lazily to the ground beside him. A few moments later, she (and her throat) regretted the shouting.

She could tell even from beneath the covers that he had a stupid smile on his stupid face. She then felt pressure next to her on the bed. To make sure he wasn't doing anything... well, stupid, she daringly peeked out from under the covers.

As soon as her eyes got used to the light and the pain resided, she looked up at him. He was smiling as usual with that bit of mischief behind them. She only wondered (a little fearfully) what this day had in store for her.

Filia sat on the edge of the bed and sighed. "I'm only going to ask this once, Xellos. _What_ are you doing here?"

Xellos cheerfully responded, "Well, I have a day off today and I thought what better way to spend it than being with my favorite dragon! Then, to my utmost delight, I found out that _you_ seem to have the day off as well," he smirked.

_Yeah, you _would_ be happy I'm sick, huh? _thought Filia with a grimace.

"Upon finding that you're sick, I decided to do... a little quick research on remedies of the common cold."

She braced herself for what would come next.

"I found that humans often go for chicken soup when they're sick. It's the same for dragons, right?"

Filia thought for a moment. It was true that, when she was still at the temple and didn't feel well, the elders used to bring her soup in bed, but she hesitated to tell Xellos that for obvious reasons. So she settled with giving him a suspicious look, saying, "Why are you asking...?"

Xellos smiled and shrugged before responding. "Oh, nothing really. I was just thinking you might like some, so I'm going to take the liberty of making some for you."

Filia stared in horror. "You're going to do _what!_"

"I'm going to make you some chicken soup," he reaffirmed.

Filia had to process the thought of _Xellos cooking for her,_ before attempting to proceed with the conversation. "And... _why_ are you doing this...?"

Xellos just pulled a friendly little smile and left it at that. Obviously, whatever reason he had for wanting to do this was his secret alone. Filia just hoped that whatever that reason was, didn't involve poison.

He was already headed towards the kitchen, and Filia didn't even have the energy to chase after him.

_... Bah._

Filia desperately wanted to go downstairs to see what he was doing, but she still couldn't pull up the energy. Heck, she couldn't pull up the energy to close those stupid blinds. Alas, she was stuck with her migraine, which she was starting to feel she'd never be rid of. So, she lay in bed staring at the ceiling left to her own thoughts.  
'_He trying to poison you!' _was the main thought that ran through her head. But there was the occasional, _'Maybe he'll feed the poison to Val! Or blow up the kitchen! AAGH!'_ At this point, she tried to calm herself down and take deep breaths. Through her mouth, of course. Her nose is pretty much useless at the moment.  
... Which means, even if it does turn out to be awful, she won't even be able to taste it, right? On the other hand, if it _does_ end up having poison, she couldn't tell. But... would Xellos even _use_ poison you can taste? Would he even use poison at all?  
... Or maybe he was actually trying to do something genuinely _nice._ But for Xellos to randomly start acting nice after being so rude and heartless for years would be a bit odd. And besides, Monsters don't _do_ nice things. It's just... out of character. _'Which means that he's planning something catastrophic! Horrible and catastrophic! ... In theory.'_

...  
... He _can_ cook, right..?

About forty-five minutes later, Filia heard Xellos walking towards her room. She forced herself to take deep breaths before he got there. She calmed herself with the thought that the kitchen and house were still there, she hadn't heard any precious pots breaking, and Val seemed to be fine, taking his afternoon nap.  
Xellos smiled as he handed the soup over. Filia sat up and cautiously took it. It didn't _look_ particularly threatening. It looked... like soup. She tried an attempt to smell it but to no avail.

"I didn't poison it, if that's what you're thinking," Xellos said as Filia's head immediately snapped up to glare at him.

"Give me _one_ reason why I should believe you!"

"Because using poison to kill a dragon is inefficient," he calmly replied, shrugging.

Filia sat for a moment trying to come up with a comeback for his response, but she couldn't really deny his reasoning. But that did _not_ mean she going eat any of that stuff.

"...So, are you going to try it?" Xellos asked.

"Of course not!" Filia shouted, despite the pain it gave her.

Xellos gave a small sigh before giving a nasty smile that fit only on him. "In that case, would you like me to hand-feed you then?"

That was unacceptable. Whatever happened today, she was _not_ going to let Xellos hand-feed her. Her mind then displayed a picture of what being hand-fed by Xellos would look like. She'd decided she'd rather be poisoned and die than to let that happen.

Filia shuddered before giving in. "Okay, okay! I'll eat it!"

On the verge of tears, she took a deep breath (_which could be her las_t, thought her mind, again without permission) as she hesitantly raised the spoon to her lips. She took one last look at it before taking it in.

Filia coughed, and not because it had poison. It was because of the... awful to say the very least, taste. Even though she couldn't taste most things at the moment, she could _definitely_ taste this. She cringed as she tried to swallow the spoonful she had taken. Whatever he had put in this, it was _not_ part of the recipe. If he hadn't actually put poison in it, the taste was probably still enough to kill a human. Good thing Filia's not human.

Resisting the urge to throw up the small portion she had taken in, she managed to get out, "_What_ did you put _in_ this!"

Xellos pulled a confused face, which, knowing him, might have been fake. "What do you mean?"

"It's _terrible! _ Did you even taste it before feeding it to me!"

"Um... Well, no..." he confessed.

"Well, you should have! I've never had _anything_ this disgusting!" she shouted, still resisting the urge and completely ignoring her sore-throat now. The only thing she was currently worried about was trying to get rid of that _ghastly_ aftertaste. "I don't even know how someone can possibly make something this bad and then expect to feed it to someone who's already in enough pain and suffering!" she shrieked, now losing it.

Xellos cautiously took the bowl and stepped back before trying a spoonful himself. His eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. "This wasn't the taste I was expecting," he admitted. "It tastes... more sweet than salty."

Filia was still glaring at him with repulsion. "I think that's an understatement," she snarled.

He nodded. "You're right. It hardly tastes salty at all. Not at all like it's supposed to." He then paused before saying, "Heh, I suppose I still need to work on my cooking skills. I must have confused the salt with the sugar," he laughed.

... _THAT JERK._

Filia, still pulling a face filled with utter hatred, said "I don't think Monsters should _ever_ be allowed to cook again if they can't even tell the difference between salt and sugar! _EVER."_

"Perhaps I can try again..?" Xellos suggested.

"_No!_"

"Practice makes perfect, right? Really, that's all I need."

"_Get out!"_


End file.
